Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council wrote an opinion piece for Fox on June 29, 2018 which said, “I know firsthand that a secure border with the big beautiful wall the president is building is the only humane and permanent solution to the crisis at the border.” The border wall is back in the news again as Democrats threaten a government shutdown to avoid spending money for the nation’s security. Currently the Democrat congressional leaders are mentioning a possible $1.3 billion for a border fence, far short of the $5 billion President Trump seeks for a border wall.
Why is the wall important? In 1970’s and 80’s, Politico reported in June of this year, immigrant smuggling was a big business. “All that changed beginning in the early 1990s, when U.S. authorities, responding to the chaos and open flouting of the law at the border, built a wall.” That was Politico’s conclusion. The chaos and open flouting of the law at the border was stopped by building a wall. In Tijuana the report says, “the walls, along with bulked-up security, have imposed order on a chaotic border, where extortion, rape and robbery had been common.”
Benjamin Dierker, in a June 20, 2018 article in The Federalist, notes that the border wall will save lives. He writes, “A child or family is less likely to take a perilous journey just to end up staring up at a 30-foot wall or being turned around by security personnel.” He adds in the same article that a border wall will reduce illegal immigration, smuggling, and trafficking. “A border wall saves lives by reducing weaponry, drugs, and human traffiking, while protecting the environment from devastating impacts.”
So, let’s get this straight. The border wall will prevent the needless deaths and suffering of thousands of people who make an arduous journey through Mexico hoping to sneak across the U.S. border and it will protect U.S. citizens from those who seek to enter illegally to do harm.
This is what the Democrats oppose; safety for immigrants and safety for American citizens. Is it fair to say that the Democrats oppose people being safe? I’m not sure. In June of 2013, all 54 Democrat Senators voted to double the length of the border fence. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 passed the U.S. Senate 80-19 with Democrat Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer voting for it.
The evidence here is clear. The Democrats oppose anything President Trump supports, regardless of whether it benefits the country. They’ve voted for border security before but reject it now because their hatred of President Trump and his supporters is greater than their desire to put country first. You don’t have to take my analysis of it as fact. Here’s what they say. On December 6, 2018, Nancy Pelosi called the proposed border wall “immoral.” Congressman Filemon Vela said, “The border wall is a physical representation of the cultural and racial insults President Trump has spewed since his campaign announcement. “
It’s clear that the Democrats’ desire to thwart any part of President Trump’s agenda trumps the nation’s best interests. They may have voted for border security in the past, but now it will be viewed as immoral, racist and contemptible. The American people, though, don’t agree with the Democrats. Jen Kerns in a February 3, 2018 article in The Hill notes a Harvard-Harris poll which cited support for President Trump’s proposal, at the time, for border security. She noted, “A stunning 65 percent of Americans support a DACA deal that ends chain migration, eliminates the random visa lottery and secures the border with a wall.”
Families who’ve dealt with tragic acts committed by illegal aliens might not agree with the Democrats.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform notes that on May 6th, 2017, on the way back from Disneyland, Ingrid Lake’s car was struck by a drunk driver. The accident severely injured her 6-year-old son Lennox. The driver of the vehicle, Constantino Banda Acosta, was previously deported over 15 times before the accident. This accident has forever altered the Lake family.
FAIR also notes the story of Apolinar Altamirano. Altamirano was an illegal alien from Mexico who murdered Grant Ronnebeck on January 22, 2015 in Mesa, Arizona. Ronnebeck was shot over a pack of cigarettes while he was working his shift at a convenience store. Altamirano was out on bond from a previous conviction while ICE determined whether he should be deported.
While no one can know with certainty if these tragedies would have been avoided with a border wall, there is a problem. National defense receives unique and elevated emphasis under the Constitution. It is not “just” another duty of the federal government. As it stands now, there is a real possibility of a government shut down due to the fight over funding the wall. The media will lie and spin to make whatever problems arise from that, the president’s fault. We shouldn’t be taken in. Hypocrisy, hate and recklessness are living the Democrat camp.
